There are only so many hours in a day. Eight working,
eight sleeping, three (at least) feeding and cleaning, leaving precious
little time for yourself let alone your community. Add two hours to commute
and you’ve got the classic curse of the bedroom community. It’s
not impossible to overcome, you just need to be that much more committed
to making the time work.

While bedroom communities aren’t without their
challenges, it’s nothing compared to the real threat posed by (insert
evil music) vacation homes. They seriously hurt Whistler, but will Squamish
suffer the same fate? Occupied scant months of the year, these owners
are not an asset to the community. Sure they raise property values and
drop some cash for the time they’re here, but they’re not
helping out at the soup kitchen, volunteering for the Triathlon, Test
of Metal, Logger Sports, Soccer Fest or the countless other community
driven events.

In our world, no one can stop people from buying second
homes. It’s obvious, the word Squamish is already out there. National
Post subscribers would have noticed Squamish as the cover girl on “Resorts
magazine” which advertises vacation homes. Inside it’s just
a big add for a realtor who (you owe me) will remain nameless. “Ice-blond
hair in a sleek up-do and fresh-off-the-runway DKNY summerwhites, (name
removed) epitomizes urban cool.” As she rightly raves about selling
Squamish there are pictures of surfing and snorkeling in a bikini.

That’s fantastic, I’m glad the yuppies are
excited about Squamish. However, we must let people know we’re no
longer cheap shmuckleheads. With industry gone, we have to make up the
tax hit somewhere so why not here? Whether we increase the tax for absentee
home owners, or cut a break for the working stiffs living here, something
has got to change. Let’s send the message, if you want to buy here
but not participate, it’s going to cost you.

And while we’re on the topic of making the community
killers pay, let’s talk about big boxes. Wait, this isn’t
a Mal-Wart is evil segment. That discussion is over, with the facts in
plain view. The high cost of low prices aside, this is about forcing Mal-Wart,
and those that follow, to give back to the community whether they want
to or not with a big box tax. Simple to implement, it’s akin to
restaurants adding the gratuity automatically with big groups. As any
server knows, the bigger the numbers the better the chances of someone
not pulling their weight. We could also be looking at the tax benefits
of being a resort municipality, but that’s another blackened fish
to fry.

I’ll end with a salute and cheers to easily the
best community grocery store in Squamish, Marketplace IGA (aka Shane and
Nikki). Almost every community event had huge support from these pillars
of the community. They gave until it literally hurt and for that Squamish
owes an ever lasting thank you and all the best!